Heat
by ObsessionsGoTooFar
Summary: Konoha's sun is merciless.


**A/N- Firstly, I DID NOT WRITE THIS. It was written by www . fanfiction . net /u/ 1457146 (remove the spaces) and the link to the original is on my profile. I read it, liked it, and translated it with their permission. No credit goes to me, and all copyright belongs elsewhere.**

**That said, enjoy!**

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Heat. There is nothing worse than heat. Just a small while ago it had been raining buckets on Konoha, and now – for a week already – merciless heat, worse than summer in the desert, had been attacking the village, as if it was trying to bake the recently absorbed moisture from the ground. Strong, firm tree trunks turned dry and wrinkly and leaves crumbled into dust. Grass yellowed and those who ventured onto it barefooted were pricked by the (now literal) blades. The air was heated to such a degree that even the wind – the famous Konoha gale – felt hot. There wasn't a cloud in the sky; the sun hung above the village, a bright sphere giving off enough heat to give the stone faces of the Hokage a suntan. There was no salvation; it was at least 100 degrees even in the shade, the lake in the forest was quickly heated, and trying to seek refuge in its water became futile, even air conditioners in closed spaces were of no help! Nor did the lowering of temperatures in nighttime help; the night was far too short in the summer months.

Civilians somehow dealt with the torturous heat; jounin canceled training sessions with their genin students. And yet certain stubborn nin didn't abandon the task of self-perfection even under the sun's unbearable heat.

"What. The. HELL is wrong with you?!"

"Neji, let's go home! You'll get heatstroke!"

"Nothing will happen to me. If you want to go, you can go. I'll be staying here!"

"Why should you go? Because you could die of dehydration or overheating."

"The blind spot is a weakness of the Byakugan! You can't change that with training!"

"Oh, screw this. What can we do? Let's get out of here, I'm baked already."

The five chunin closed the gate of the training grounds behind them, leaving Neji alone with the heat. Tenten, Lee, Hinata, Shino, and Kiba with Akamaru turned around a last time, hoping to see that their elder comrade had changed his mind.

"Later we'll be dragging him from here on a stretcher!" Kiba burst out, annoyed.

"We need to bring much water to him," Shino said. "Why? Because if we don't he will certainly die of exhaustion."

"Okay," said Tenten. "I live the closest to here. You all can go home, and I'll see to it that he has plenty of water!"

Even the faucet that (supposedly) gave cold water gave warm water instead, but it couldn't be helped. It's not like she could take Neji a cooler of carbonated water from the store. Besides, she was taking the water to him so his body wouldn't fail under the heat, not to quench thirst.

Tenten brought 4 5-liter containers to the training ground. It figured; Neji was still there.

"Oi, maniac!" his Weapons Mistress shouted as she heaved the containers of water into a heap. "Have you boiled yet?"

Neji didn't turn immediately towards her, but when this did actually happen, Tenten gasped: his forehead, nose, and cheeks were all red with sunburn!

"Are you out of your mind?!" she screamed, practically ripping off the cap of one of the bottles of water and shoving it into Neji's arms. "Do you want to die? Self-perfection is all well and good, but you have to know your limits sometimes!"

"Everything's fine, Tenten," said Neji, emptying half the bottle in one gulp.

"Oh, really?" the Weapons Mistress surveyed her partner skeptically. "Because you're downing water like an elephant!"

Neji just grunted and emptied the rest of the bottle onto his head, throwing aside the empty container. Retreating into the shade of the tree, which was purely symbolical, as the sun was at its zenith, he untied his forehead protector and pulled his shirt over his head, soaked through with water and sweat. He also removed his black "skirt" (as Lee called it behind Neji's back). Piling all this under the tree, he gathered his remarkable hair into a ponytail higher on his head, and returned to the wooden pillars.

"Okay, that's it," sighed Tenten, surveying her partner's stubbornness, and in two steps closed the distance between them. Seizing Neji's hands, which were already folded into some kind of seal, Tenten lowered them and produced a vial of sunburn ointment from her weapons pouch.

"What's that?" frowned the jounin.

"So that I won't have to clean up Hyuuga Neji a la flambé by from here by evening!" she said, and, not bothering with her partner's protests, applied ointment generously to his burned face, and then his shoulders, chest, and back.

"This is obviously unnecessary," Neji grunted, returning to his training.

Tenten retreated to the tree, sitting down right on top of the wet shirt, which the genius Hyuuga had thrown there. The shade of the tree didn't help with the heat, and watching Neji gave the feeling that it was Tenten, and not him, who was exerting all strength, in order to overcome the blind spot.

Half an hour after Tenten had brought the water, Neji tired of his task and he returned to taijutsu training. He kicked each of the wooden pillars, and they fell backwards, pulling from under the ground wooden dummies painted with targets. Tenten usually used these for target practice, and Lee and Neji- for their taijutsu.

The young jounin walked over to where Tenten had piled the bottles of water, opened one and emptied its contents over his head. Either from the contrast of temperature or something else, the band holding his hair back snapped, and wet with droplets of water strands of hair flowed over his back, shoulders and chest. The liquid rolled down his face, and Neji opened and closed his mouth, greedily attempting to catch the refreshing drops of water. It seemed time had slowed, and the water moved torturously slowly, as if to focus attention on every aspect of the wondrously defined body. Tenten observed this, her breath caught. She had never imagined that such a scene could be so… Streams of water trickled down Neji's neck, trailing down his chest, defining every muscle, moving lower, to his stomach. The sunlight was reflected in the streams of water as it trickled between the muscles of his stomach, and Tenten gulped, while somewhere inside her everything contracted from a thrilling shiver. The white pants were wet and stuck to Neji's legs, having become almost transparent. Tenten felt that she was blushing, and it began to be hard to breathe in her fascination. She'd never realized her partner was so sexy!

Throwing aside the empty container, Neji bent over, so that his hair hung down, and then with a sharp movement straightened, throwing the wet strands back, and then shook his head, so that his hair was tossed about, throwing glistening droplets of water into the air. Having finished this – it appeared – usual ritual, the Hyuuga turned to Tenten and… collapsed, as though cut down! This startled Tenten back to her senses. Truly frightened, she ran to her partner and felt his forehead. In spite of the fact that he had just emptied 5 liters of water onto himself, Neji's face was as hot as though it was on fire. Tenten hadn't doubted that it would all end in heatstroke. "Later we'll be dragging him from here on a stretcher!" – she recalled Kiba's words, and, sighing, she heaved her partner's weight onto her shoulders and dragged him to Konoha's hospital.


End file.
